


What A Launchpad Does Best

by VJR22_6



Series: They’re Getting Married For Gos [1]
Category: Darkwing Duck (Cartoon 1991), DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Adoption, Fake Marriage, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Mutual Pining, gos is frequently mentioned but doesn’t appear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 10:15:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29758122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VJR22_6/pseuds/VJR22_6
Summary: He wants nothing but the world for them, but how can he give them that when they're falling apart already? So he does what a Launchpad does best, and hopes it’s enough to put them back together again.
Relationships: Drake Mallard/Launchpad McQuack
Series: They’re Getting Married For Gos [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2187126
Comments: 6
Kudos: 37





	What A Launchpad Does Best

**Author's Note:**

> Helloooooo duck fans! Welcome to “drakepad fake marriage to adopt their daughter” hours, I’m your host, Jay Sabrewing. Today we have a round of “is this Launchpad angst, or are these gays just skipping dating so they can adopt their daughter?” (I think the answer just might be both, folks.)
> 
> Special thank-you to my lovely beta reader and editor friend Ren for all the help(and the title) on this fic!
> 
> Read the rest of my fake-marriage-drakepad thoughts, and a first draft of this fic’s ending, on tumblr: https://gosalynmallardlockdown.tumblr.com/post/639215431827292160/hey-who-wants-to-hear-about-the-fucking-massive

_“A single-parent household is just not the most_ suitable _for a child with her personality….”_

_“—simply don’t feel she’s safest, after all she’s been through—”_

_“...and there’s never a guarantee, you know, with couples that aren’t married—”_

_“I’m sure you understand.”_

Launchpad feels like he’s about to scream. Or cry. Maybe both, he muses, and he probably already would be doing a bit of both if it weren’t for Drake in the passenger seat.

Drake, curled up in a ball and gazing out the window listlessly. Obviously heartbroken. All because… because… well.

LP’s heartbroken too.

He turns away to focus on the road better. It seems like every street in St. Canard is full of bumps and holes, but they’ve had a rough enough day. He wants to drive carefully and give Drake a moment to rest.

He doesn’t crash much anymore, these days. As long as he’s with Drake or Gos… Gos, she… ugh. He just wants to keep them safe, be home with them, feel like he’s finally found his _place_ , except he can’t do any of that because they’ve just been told their little girl isn’t theirs at all, actually.

He feels very, very lost. Sure, he knows the way to the tower, piercing the edge of the St. Canardian skyline like always. But inside, within his ever-bleeding heart, he’s forgotten the way back to feeling okay.

He thinks about the lady they’d gone to meet. Organized, with color-coded files and labels on everything and the most neat handwriting he’s ever seen. Except maybe Gyro’s, but he thinks that might just be because he practices it so much. She put even _his_ usual introverted personality to shame, though, with how little she seemed to want to talk to them.

She didn’t seem to like either of them at all.

Drake introduced LP as his partner, and she made the face that all of LP’s least favorite people do. He knows why, but doesn’t give it the power of becoming words in his head. It hurts just a little too much to think someone wouldn’t like him for _that_.

She seemed to like him even less when she had to ask Drake to clarify that no, they're not married. As if it really matters, LP thinks, but when he remembers the way she talked about _”being together”_ he thinks of every other love taking up space in his heart. All the faded memories with people who moved on from him, one after the other.

He thinks about being forgotten and left behind, and his heart aches.

He feels hollowed-out, like an ice cream container that’s been scooped to the bottom, with barely enough left to call it what it used to be at all. He and Drake haven’t even been dating for a few weeks, and have only known each other for a couple months entirely. They had put their own relationship aside at the start, and it’s still so much less important than this. He feels so, so empty knowing that they can’t salvage what’s barely become a thing at all.

It hurts even worse when he thinks about Gosalyn again. About how that woman so carelessly implied she’s been through too much, and needs a safe place to recover, but that she wouldn’t find it with them. If only he could tell her that Gos went through it all with them already.

If only he could have told her. If he could talk about how Gosalyn laughed and howled to the starry sky the first time she rode in the Ratcatcher with them. Or about how she sprinted for danger when it came time to fight villains, more eager than Darkwing himself. Or the way, when she had to, she shot the Ramrod closed, a truer hero than them all. The way she deserves to be somewhere she can keep fighting that battle to find her family.

Especially if in the end her family turns out to be with Drake, who held her so, so tight while she cried over what she’s lost. And if both of them turn out to belong with _him_ , too, because he never, ever wants the feeling of being with them to fade. He never wants to even think about leaving or losing them.

He doesn’t want to ache anymore, like he is when he thinks about losing their little girl or their still-new relationship in any sort of way.

They reach the tower without a word. Drake still looks haunted, and LP feels a fleeting sense of relief that Gos is off with the other kids today. If she saw Drake right now, all three of them would have to face things falling apart. He’s not ready for that inevitable good… bye… but he’s not sure it has to be.

Before either of them can take off for the corners of the tower, probably to fall apart, he decides he’s got to at least try and fix things. Use his ever-overfilled heart to stick things together enough they’ll stay.

“Drake,” Launchpad murmurs, trying to make his voice as soft as he can, mostly to hide the fact he really wants to cry right now. “I need to ask you something.”

“Yeah, LP?” Drake sounds endlessly tired, but as he turns his head, his eyes have a loving glimmer to them, just like always. “What’s up?”

Launchpad considers himself for a moment, taking pause like he should have before he started talking. He’s had this silly idea for a while—since the Ramrod incident, honestly—but he always thought he’d be more prepared. He’d get an actual ring, for one. And he wouldn’t rush into it this way, practically skipping the “dating” part of their relationship entirely.

But he’s watched his best friend, his other half, go through the worst couple of weeks recently. From finding out Gosalyn’s grandpa couldn’t come back, to officially deciding he wanted to adopt her, to Jim’s return, Drake has been fighting a losing battle at every turn.

And LP knows this is the best way he has to show he’s going to stick with Drake in anything that comes their way.

“I know... I know this isn’t the best timing,” he forces a lump in his throat away. “But, um... after what they said today, about, um... how there’s no way to prove we’ll both be there for her? If... if we aren’t married?”

“Launchpad? Do you…?”

He takes Drake’s hands and holds them gently, ever smaller than his, and their eyes meet. He gets onto his knees, trying not to tremble. He’s never loved _anyone_ this much, ever. If Drake says no, and they end up breaking up, it will break his heart irreparably. But he doesn’t know how to do anything but love, and this is feeling like a breakup before it begins. He has to try and help however he can, even if he’s going to lose them in the end.

“Drake, I... I didn’t wanna do it like this, but... will you marry me? So—so they’d know I’ll never leave you? So _you_ know I’ll never leave you?”

“Of course,” Drake smiles, and the tears he’s been fighting off the whole way home start to fall. His whole expression is shaky and weak, but bursting with love. He lets go of Launchpad’s hands, falling forward to hug him.

LP loves hugs, and has had a million of them, but this is the sweetest one he’s ever had. He can’t keep from beginning to cry himself. Today has been a rollercoaster ride and he’s so dizzy from the emotional twisting and turning.

This morning he woke up thinking he’d plan their next date. It would only be their third, if he didn’t count patrol or Darkwing marathons. Instead he’s spent the day trying to save his greatest adventure before it even begins, and he’s—to even his own surprise—been successful.

“I love you more than anything, you know that?” Drake whispers, near inaudibly. He pulls back from the hug just enough so LP can see his eyes, but not enough they’ve got to let go of each other. “You’re my whole world, you and Gos.”

“And—and you’re mine,” LP’s voice breaks. “I know we’re not really, um… dating, really, not yet, but I—I just don’t wanna lose this. Don’t want to lose Gos or you or just… just this family that we made.”

“I don’t either,” he murmurs, somehow softer than before. “When… when I’m with you, I’m home. I’ve never felt like that with anyone. And if—if I lost either of you, I don’t know what I’d do.”

As he talks, his gaze drifts off to the side. Terrified of being known but somehow still craving the attention anyway. The light of the sunset catches in his dark, emotional eyes, and LP feels his heart take flight.

“If getting married to my best friend is what it’ll take to convince them we can take care of Gosalyn then—then yeah,” Drake laughs, and it’s weak and rough with emotion. It’s beautiful. “Yeah. I love you. Let’s get married.”


End file.
